Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 557 Returning to Luzon
Fan Ning and his party explored the New World for ten days and traveled thousands of miles. They did not find any local natives on the mainland. They confirmed that this was a vast and uninhabited continent. At this time, the Maori had not yet entered this continent. On the Pacific islands, the places they explored did not find traces of human activities.

The Song army erected a three-foot-tall stone tablet in the name of the Overseas Economic and Strategic Mansion of the Great Song Dynasty at the place where they landed. Under the jurisdiction of slightly government.

When returning, the three big ships did not return from the original route, but went northward from the east of Xinda Road, and directly discovered another big island, Irian Island. They traveled westward along the coast of Irian Island, and along the way saw countless vast and infinite Everyone was shocked by the fact that there are still so many lands overseas that have not been occupied, and there are so many resources.

Ten days later, they arrived at the southernmost point of Mindanao Island. The captain pointed to the land and shouted to Fan Ning: "My lord, there is another uninhabited continent ahead."

Fanning has been perfecting his map, so of course he knows where they are now?
Fan Ning laughed loudly to everyone: "This is not an uninhabited continent. This is the big southern island that has not yet been developed by the Luzon Prefecture. It is the territory of our Song Dynasty. We have already arrived home."

After more than two months of sailing, everyone on the big ship cheered when they finally arrived at Luzon Mansion.

But soon they discovered that although they had arrived at the territory under the jurisdiction of Luzon Prefecture, they were still far away from the Luzon Prefecture headquarters. They traveled all the way north, looking forward to see through, and finally encountered the Luzon Prefecture garrison in the early morning of the third day of a patrol ship.

The patrol boat team was being led to see Fan Ning, and he knelt down on one knee to salute, "Ding Li, the humble official, sees the envoy!"

Fanning nodded and asked, "Why are you here?"

"Reporting to the envoy, I am humbled to follow the orders of General Cao and Zhang Zhifu to draw a map of the entire island of Luzon."

Fanning immediately became interested, "How many sentry ships like you are there?"

"Reporting to the envoy, a total of 25 ships have been dispatched, which are divided into two tasks. Fifteen sentry ships are responsible for investigating the situation of the natives on each island, and the other ten ships are responsible for drawing maps."

After speaking, he presented the map of the Luzon Islands that he was carrying to Fan Ning.

Fan Ning took the picture book and looked at it carefully. The Luzon government has been investigating the entire Luzon Island for the past two years, and the basic outline has been revealed. This time the sentry ship came out mainly to improve the details.

He found a strait in front of him with the word 'important' marked in red, and he asked, "What's going on with this strait?"

The team explained: "This is the mission of Beizhi's trip to the south, to find the strait to the east. Although many islands in Luzon are relatively broken and narrow, they are connected together and ships cannot pass through. This strait is more critical. If you don't Entering from here, we have to detour to the northernmost part of Luzon Island, and then make a big bend to the south to reach the Luzon Bay in the west, and we have to travel more than 1000 miles.”

Fan Ning nodded with a smile and said, "If we hadn't met you, we would have gone the wrong way. Let the sentry boat lead the way!"

"As ordered!"

The team was returning to the sentinel ship, leading the fleet through the strait and into the inland sea. They continued to travel among large and small islands. The terrain was very complicated, but after two years of exploration, these islands were basically clear.

A few days later, the fleet finally arrived in Xinyan County, Luzon Prefecture after going through untold hardships. At this time, it was already mid-September, and three months had passed since the Song Army launched the war against the Sanfoqi Kingdom.

Zhang Nan personally came to the pier to welcome Fan Ning's return. Seeing the black and emaciated Fan Ning, he smiled and greeted him, "Mr. Fan, there has been no news for several months. The court is in a hurry."

Fan Ning shook his head with a wry smile, "We are lucky to come back alive, let's send a pigeon letter to the imperial court!"

Luzon Prefecture also established a pigeon letter system with the Song Dynasty. The pigeons first arrived at Xinding County in the north, and then sent from Xinding County to Liunan County in the south of Liuqiu Prefecture. From Liunan County to Quanzhou, it took about two days. delivered.

"The pigeon letter has been sent, so that you will follow me into the city to rest."

Compared with two years ago, Xinyan County has changed a lot. The population has increased to 6 households, nearly [-] people. Xinping County was built on the northernmost part of the island, Xintang County was built on the southern peninsula of Luzon Island, and Xu County was built on the west coast.

There are five counties on the entire Luzon Island, with a population of 10,000 households and [-]+ temporary workers.

Fifty thousand Japanese laborers traveled northward along the banks of the Luzon River for more than [-] miles, felled millions of trees, and opened up millions of hectares of arable land.

At present, the work of Japanese laborers is no longer in infrastructure construction, but incarnate as grain growers, sugarcane growers, and cotton pickers. Luzon has the three largest sugarcane gardens in the Song Dynasty and the largest cotton forest.

Agriculture mainly grows rice and sugar cane, and collects cotton. Luzon has become the largest frost sugar supply base in Song Dynasty. Sugar technology has been very developed in Song Dynasty. There is a government-run sugar workshop in Luzon, which will be imported into Song Dynasty this year. The amount of frosting sugar is as much as 70 catties, the cotton is close to one million dan, the grain output is more than 300 million shi, and the gold is one million taels.

When it comes to gold, I have to mention the mining industry in Luzon. Luzon not only has gold mines and copper mines, but also a rich iron mine with large reserves and high quality was discovered in the south last year.

For this reason, the Department of Salt and Iron of the Great Song Dynasty and the Overseas Economic and Strategy Office jointly recruited [-] miners in the Great Song Dynasty to open mines in Luzon, mainly for the development and smelting of gold, copper and iron.

For two days, Fan Ning, accompanied by the prefect Zhang Nan, inspected the county seat, docks, farms, mines and sugarcane gardens.

Fan Ning said with emotion: "I didn't expect that in just three years, the changes in Luzon Mansion would be so great."

"The key is to have the support of the imperial court to have so many manpower to do things."

"It's also profitable, otherwise the court guys wouldn't care."

Fan Ning smiled and said: "When I go back this time, the overseas Jiedu Mansion will expand its army. Like the Luzon Mansion, the army must have 1 people. Only the south can be developed, and large paddle boats must be developed. This is my greatest experience. , without a paddle boat, you can't go very far with sails alone."

After resting for two days, Fanning's three big ships followed the big ships transporting frosting sugar and grain to the north early the next morning.

Autumn in Quanzhou is a bit chilly, and Fan Ning finally returned to Quanzhou after leaving for more than five months.

There is no difference between his family and when he left a few months ago, except that his five children have grown up for a few more months, the mother's love, the children's innocence and the tenderness of his wife have made his body tired for several months Both the mind and the soul have been greatly comforted, as if the fine and warm spring rain is nourishing the dry land.

When he got home, he stayed at home and didn't want to come out. Of course, he could only think about it.

Early the next morning, Fan Ning went out to go to the government office of Jinglue Mansion. Just as he was about to get into the carriage, he unexpectedly found that the wheels of the carriage had changed. Just like the picture he drew, it was wrapped with an inner tube and an outer tire, and the workmanship was quite exquisite.

Zhu Pei laughed and said: "Mingli brought people here to make this a few days ago, using a few pieces of soft leather, saying that my husband taught them in Nanyang, it is indeed very comfortable, the car is not bumpy at all, and the speed is also fast. "

The coachman also gave a thumbs up and praised: "This thing is really good, we drivers know it best, it's so convenient."

In fact, Fan Ning is more concerned about how the valve core is made, and he will go to the firm to take a look at it later.

Fan Ning bid farewell to his wife, got into the carriage and went to the government office.

The official office is very busy. The Ryukyu Mansion, Luzon Mansion, and Baozhou, three new pieces of land, hundreds of thousands of people and laborers, countless materials and wealth, and all kinds of intricate things make the overseas economic mansion The officials were too busy to touch the ground.

However, the return of the Economic Envoy still caused a great commotion. Officials ran out to welcome the return of the Economic Envoy. The Deputy Envoy Li Mu stepped forward to salute and said: "We have received news from the Luzon Mansion that the Economic Envoy has been missing for several months. When the envoy came back, everyone was overjoyed, and many officials had a drinking party that day to celebrate the envoy's safe return."

Fan Ning smiled and said, "It's true to find an excuse to drink and party!"

Everyone laughed, and Fan Ning waved his hand and said: "This time I visited Nanyang and found many uninhabited islands with rich resources and vast land. This means that the Overseas Economic and Strategic Administration will do more. , Everyone, you must be mentally prepared to go overseas and create a new country in the Song Dynasty."

(End of this chapter)